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After PSLE – 1 Year On in a Neighbourhood Secondary School

After the no-tuition route that we had strongly believed in to prepare for Missy’s PSLE last year, what has happened in the year for Missy in Secondary school life? Missy did not enter a TOP branded school. We knew that was not a route for Missy and it was not a necessary path for our kids either. Missy entered a neighbourhood Secondary School. It was a perfect school for Missy. Here is why.

After receiving Missy’s PSLE results last year, we went for a big celebration regardless what results she got. If you would have remembered, we sent her a big bouquet of flowers one day before the PSLE results were out, to send her the message that we were really proud of her efforts put in rather than focusing on the 3 digit score. We went for 2 Open Houses that weekend, let Missy choose the Secondary Schools she wished to put in her Choice list, and we were happy that she got her first choice of school, a 7-minute walk neighbourhood school.

Fast forward to one year now, I must say Missy has matured in all aspects in this awesome school. It was an eye opener for Missy and for myself on what a neighbourhood Secondary school is like.

Principal

One of the most important thing we did when we visited the Open Houses and checked out the Secondary Schools is to talk to the Principals. We found out from friends in education sector about the principal of the schools, ensure they have a passion of nurturing students in all aspects apart from academic, hear from teachers’ feedback on the principals’ leadership and the changes that took place in the school under the principal. We find that this is the fastest way to help us understand if this school’s culture and values are what we wish for our child to grow up in. We were happy and convinced that from numerous sources, Missy’s current school principal is a very committed leader and have in place good initiatives that put students’ interests and growth as top priorities.

Distance from Home

I have never appreciate proximity as much as now. Missy could be home within 10 minutes. She saves lots of time from travelling and more time for rest and she can wake up at a later time.

CCAs

Interestingly, while TOP schools may have an extremely competitive and stressful selection of school team players especially when there are so many DSA players, we are happy that Missy shines in multi-CCA selections in a less competitive environment. However, she could only choose one CCA. When Missy joined the sports team, the school had never been close to entering the Nationals. After she and a few school team players from her Primary School joined the cohort, they created record and the school relived the honour of the sports! It was a proud moment that they have the potential to create history in the school! A niche CCA can really come from a humble beginning!

Leadership Opportunities

When Missy entered Secondary 1, one of my top advice to her is to encourage her to take on leadership roles whenever possible. It is not so much for the deduction of points when she goes on to post-Secondary education. It is more of a golden opportunity to learn soft skills, meet different kinds of people, deal with challenging situations and problem-solve. Missy was lucky to be the monitress cum chairperson of the monitors in her class. She faced lots of issues and challenges along the way for the entire year and there were times that it was too trying for her. But she soldiered on and we often discussed these issues on how she could have handled better or thought of creative solutions together to tackle problems. She really grew up a lot. I am so thankful for the opportunities that she had in this school.

Right now, she is in the selection stage of becoming a student leader in the school and potential Captain in her sports team. I am so proud of her. Such leadership opportunities may be more competitive in a TOP school where there are many potentials than available positions. In comparison, I would think that as long as you have a positive attitude, leadership opportunities are much within reach in a neighbourhood school.

Academic

I do not think that teachers are allocated bias-ly to different schools. In fact, I think from Missy’s experience, neighbourhood schools have good teachers too. Teachers who make a difference to the love of learning, and able to impart concepts to students for clearer understanding are good teachers, no matter where they are teaching. Coupled with the cooperation of the students’ own learning attitude, it takes two to clap. Hence, it does not mean that neighbourhood schools will not produce good students or less of them. At the end of it all, the students’ learning attitude dictates the type of students they make out to be.

School Programs

While I cannot speak for TOP schools’ programs and deemed it any fairer when budget is in the picture, I must say that neighbourhood schools have their own good curriculum too. Missy was attracted to this school when she first learnt that they have some sort of camps from Sec 1 to Sec 4. I believe other schools may have something similar. The important thing is that Missy enjoys the activities the school caters for them.

Friends

There are days and periods of time when each of our children encountered friendship issues. They were precious lessons to learn from and many good opportunities to hone their social skills. Each issue they faced and teared, was not lost to wallowing in self-pity or bad-mouthing peers. Every time it happened, I had a chance to discuss with each kid on stepping back to take a different look from another person’s perspective. It was refreshing and satisfying after the storm might be over and they see the fruits of their calm demeanor to amend, solve, make peace or the ability to see the true colours eventually. Friendship woes happen everywhere, regardless if it is a neighbourhood school or not. But in a neighbourhood school, the mix of students’ characters can be more diverse and I take it as a real society’s mix that the children will eventually see and face. Why not learn to handle and deal with a good mix of characters and differences now than later?

ATTITUDE MATTERS

The conclusion, after seeing what Missy has gone through in the entire year in this neighbourhood school, is that we are glad she has flourished in a school environment suitable for her learning pace, and plenty of opportunities to practise important life skills. It could be jolly well be a TOP branded school or a neighbourhood school like us. Nevertheless, I am convinced that with a good personal attitude towards herself and towards life, she can excel anywhere, in any school. The only difference is whether you are able to see and welcome every life’s opportunity positively or not.

Yes, environment plays a part, but if environment is such that it is not so favourable, would you be able to turn it around to your advantage such that you learn from the experience? This is what I want all my children to be and have – a POSITIVE MINDSET regardless where they are.

Do Our Kids Really Need Tuition?

Do our kids really need tuition? If you ask me, I would say maybe out of 10 kids, at least 5 may not need it at all. And then we have the other 5 who may really need it due to perhaps, a disengaging school teacher who kills all the passion in the subject, the child’s slow learning pace, lack of motivation and more reasons. So for the 5 who may not need, what is the compelling reason to take extra classes at all? Are our school teachers so incapable of teaching a child such that he or she does not understand the subject well? Is it that we want our kids to be able to answer every single question, problem sum, leaving practically nothing to be wrong?

When our first child was born, certainly the thought that we have to set aside funds for extra tuition classes never ever crossed our minds! However, we did secretly hope that we need not spend money for extra lessons. We wished that our children can perform well in school. We know how tuition classes are like from friends and media. And we do not want our children to spend their after school or weekend hours to sit in a class again to understand the same topics. Maybe it is just that we are selfish, we do not wish to ferry them back and forth classes. We certainly would be happy if we can save the money and time on tuition and better allocate them to playgrounds, building sandcastles, picnics, nature or even one or two expensive toys. If you have followed my PSLE series post, you would have known that Missy belonged to the average student and now that she has completed primary school days, my verdict is that I am glad I did not send her for tuition.

Many have asked me how we can go the No Tuition route. The answer is really very simple. Lower our expectations of our children. If you really want me to say the true answer, then it will be:

Have NO Expectations of our child

But how many people can do that? Don’t we all wish for our children to be top 3 in class? For some, getting our children to be top students may be fulfilling what we could not achieve when we were students ourselves. Maybe the real question to ask ourselves is: Why do we want our children to be top students? Can we accept Bs and Cs and why not?

With the pursuit of academic excellence, there are bound to have some opportunity costs. I think these are heavy costs.

Doing well by own efforts

We take away the chance to do well academically by our children’s own efforts. By enrolling tuition from as young as kinder or lower primary, we have never given our children a chance to prove to themselves that they can do it without additional help.

You are no good

We are telling our children that your results are no good, and that is why we are sending you for extra help so that you can improve. If your child is good enough, it is good enough, why do we want them to get the extra marks or even pursue for perfect score, not tolerating even one or two marks loss? What is life all about? Being perfect and always on the top 1% no matter where you go?

Nothing else matters except Ace

Our message to our children is: Academic comes first and anything non-academic or non-competitive do not matter. Is this the right message that we want the children to receive? Childhood life is just that: Ace Ace and more Ace?

No chance to fail

We deprive the children of a chance to fail. They grow up in a world of excellence and In their dictionary, it is missing the words “FAILURE” and “RESILIENT“. We should worry for the day when we no longer can help them achieve excellence and should they fall down, they cannot stand up on their own.

As parents, we all want the best for our child. Apart from basic morals and values, I find that having no expectations on our child is perhaps the best present that we can give them. When we do not expect anything, we allow the child to develop on their own, take charge of their own learning, take responsibility for consequences. By not expecting anything, does not mean that we are totally hands-free and let the child swim on his own. In fact, we can give help, guidance, and if really beneficial, send the child to tuition because the child needs it and not because WE want it. We can give moral support, and all kinds of help but let’s not expect anything in return. Our job is to do what we can to arm the child with the right tools so that he can walk on his own, grow on his own, not dictating which path he must take.

I am all for parents who send their children for tuition because they see the need to do so to help the child. But I wish that this post can remind parents whose children who are already doing well academically, that there are many other things in life that matter more. Some children mature slower, and a less than average results may not determine the child’s future. Some mature in Secondary School or later part in life. Children who are already doing well, let them have the time to play. Children who are doing average, it may just be a time issue. When the time is right, they will do well eventually. It may not be doing well academically, but it may be other non-academic talents that we should nurture instead of focusing on what they are no good in. What for focus on something that you are no good in and struggle to better it in unhappiness than to focus on something that you are good in and better it in happiness?

There is no intention of stating what is right and wrong in the decision for tuition in this post. As parents, we are the best persons to determine if our child needs that extra help in academic. However, before we sign up for that expensive tuition class, we may want to revisit the opportunity costs that I mention above and if this is really necessary or we are just afraid that our kids will fail our expectations.

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This post is the first post of the No Tuition series that I am starting to work on. I will be sharing how we go about our journey on No Tuition and the revisions that we did at home to help our child in the next few posts. My objective is really to hope more parents will focus on a happy childhood instead of feeding the billion dollar tuition industry.

Holding It Together as a FTWM of 3 Kids Without A Maid

To be honest, I was scared counting down to maidless days. After enjoying life without the endless house chores, the thought of going back to doing them worried me. It is not so much as in whether I will be able to cope, it is more about losing the quality time with the kids, if I will step into the house after work with a foul mood seeing a messy house and stepping on oily, sticky floors. I had been through that phase and it was not something I wish to reminisce about. I remember that each time when I came home from work, as I stood at the doorway and looked into the house, my mind is full of frustrations and naggings about school shoes strewn about, toys littered around, beds unmade, pyjamas on the sofa, etc. And the next thing was me picking up toys with my handbag still on my shoulder, and kneeling down to mop the floor in my work clothes. I needed to tidy up the house in a jiffy in order to feel good for the evening. Hence, the kids got the worst of me and it was nothing proud at all.

Actually those days were only 3 years ago before I decided to employ a helper. I had then changed job and work took up much of my time. With an extra pair of hands, I was able to concentrate on work and was happy that I could play with the kids after work, free of house chores. Having a helper also means that I could have my couple nights out or girlfriends nights out in peace. I could sneak out for late night supper with my hub. I freed my caregiver who is my Father-in-law from cooking as well. He was able to relax with his grandchildren instead of making time for cooking chores. In the crucial year of PSLE this year, my helper was a great help to ensure that my revision with Missy was efficient. With her around, I did not have to worry about other distractions and house chores. All was good till my helper decided to get married and ended her contract with us and we decided not to employ another one.

Why do I insist on Not Hiring Another Helper?

You would have asked me why I did not hire another helper. The main reason is a request from Missy. She asked not to have a new helper simply because she does not want to attach feelings to another helper and be disappointed and sad when she leaves. She also insisted that she will be able to help out in the house. I debated for a long time with myself and my hub about giving what Missy wants versus what I WANT. I know that with a helper, everyone has more of my time and I need not slog on my leisure hours. But I had to give Missy a chance to show that she is capable of helping out. Besides, it is time that the kids learn responsibility and independence without help. Weighing the pros and cons, the cons of not hiring a helper actually outnumbered the pros. Still, we bite the bullet and go maidless.

Weeding Out Bad Habits From the Kids

For those with helpers will know that whenever the helper goes out on her off day, the house will be messy in less than an hour. Cups piled up in the sink, toys and books all over and floors got dirtier faster too. We will know that these will miraculously be tidied and cleaned by night time and nobody bothers to even wash a cup. Hence, on the first few days after my helper left, my house is in complete mess. How things operate in the house have to change, so I thought it is time to start educating the kids. Here are some basic things that we want the kids to chip in to help and learn a thing or two.

Ensure pyjamas and home clothes are worn at least twice before they go into the laundry basket. I have madness trying to clear the house loads everyday!
The kids help to fold the clothes and put back into their wardrobe. Even simple things like folding clothes can learn a trick or two. I am happy to teach them how to fold it nicely and straighten out creases such that ironing is not needed for clothes worn at home. This is also for them to see how many sets of clothes they conveniently throw into the laundry basket and with the repercussions of this act happen to be more washing, drying, folding and keeping.
The kids have to wipe all traces of crumbs and spills. It helps that my youngest spilled some honey water near our bedroom door and everyone saw that the ants infested the sleeping area because the spills were not wiped thoroughly. This also reinforced to them the long nagged rule on no food and drinks in the bedroom.
The kids have a chance to learn how to iron their own clothes. Their grandma came by and she had a fun time teaching them how to iron and the kids were all impressed by my mum’s efficient and time-saving method of ironing clothes.
The kids learn how to hand-wash clothes. It may seem common sense to us adults, but if the kids had never done a chore, they may not know where to start and how to do it the right way.
The kids have to make their own beds every morning and hang their pyjamas in the right places.
The hanging of towels has long been a persistent nagging item, hence now, I bring out hangers and designate a place for them to hang.
Toilet manners – being considerate for the next person who uses the toilet. The kids were taught to lift up the toilet seat before or after use depending on the who is using. This prevents ammonia from filling the toilet with pee on the seats and such.
Cooking – the kids gain many opportunities to learn cooking from me. Such life skills are better taught to the kids than to the helper.

There are more bad habits that I am trying to discover and correcting them one by one now that I can see the consequences so clearly.

Seeing the Difference in the Kids

The helper could not have left at a better time. Right now is the school holidays and all the 3 kids have many chances to hone their house chore skills. There are many times I was pleasantly surprised by their good gestures to keep the house clean.

One day when I came home from work, I saw that the floor was sparkling clean. All the shoes were neatly placed, toys were kept properly and my youngest pulled my hand excitedly to bring me to his room. On the cupboard beside his bed was a set of pyjamas neatly hanged onto the hanger. He was so proud of it and went on to show me his bed which he made his bed with blankets folded nicely too. Guess who initiated the clean up? It was none other than Missy. I think she does a better job in delegating house chores to her 2 younger brothers than I do! No wonder they say that having a girl as the eldest child is the best!

On another day, Missy saw that I was very tired and still had to wash some dishes in the sink. The moment I stepped out of the kitchen to do some other chores, I heard her wash the dishes without any prompting. It was a simple gesture, but it warmed my heart very much. If we still had a helper, I will not see this thoughtful side of her.

I know that the kids are showing their love in one way or another through helping out in the house. It warmed my heart and I am really blessed to have these children. Before my helper left, I wanted to draft a time-table for them on designating house chores. I never got around to working out this time-table. Surprisingly, it is still working fine in our house. Half the time I need any help, all I have to do is to assign and one kid or another will come helping. Of course the other half of the time falls to deaf ears especially when they are playing or engaging in some activities or if they say “Later”, I will still end up doing it because it is so much easier and faster to do them myself. Nevertheless, with 3 extra pairs of hands, most of the time, the house chores can be done in 1/3 of the time!

Holding It Together as a FTWM

So, as far as it goes, things are still working out fine without a helper. I have also constantly reminded myself not to lose my cool or get into a bad mood over house chores. I consciously kept calm and tell myself that it is alright to have a dirty and untidy house. I start to get use to it by taking everything slowly and portion out the things I want to do, like packing the shelves or cleaning a room one day at a time. The last thing I want to do is to spoil everybody’s mood or sacrifice bonding time because I want everything to be neat and clean and perfect.

I admit that at times, I feel tired trying to hold everything together.

Dealing with house chores can really get on one’s nerves because the chores are never-ending and the satisfaction of clearing them does not last more than 1 day. Everyday is a new day and it also means that a refreshed set of house chores are waiting to be done!

For a full time working mum, it is not easy to stop all stress and fatigue at the door and turn on smiles and happy mood into the house at the end of a work day. The house chores have to be managed on top of managing the kids, dealing with tantrums, educating little ones and still leave time for play and bonding. I always say workplace should value mums because if they can multi-task so well in the house, they can definitely do a good job at work.

I am still fine-tuning how to change my mindset on the threshhold of cleanliness and not let house chores take up my time with the kids. I can feel the stress and fatigue affecting my interaction with people too. Plus the lack of sleep and working late nights that make me function a little off balance. I lost my cool with the kids a couple of times. I find myself offending many people around me with tactless statements that mean no harm. I am trying to hold everything together in the house as well as social life, work life and family life. I am not a superwoman, just a normal person juggling many balls on hand and trying to find a good balance.

I may not have a clean home, but I certainly treasure a happy home. Now that I see the kids are learning responsibility, independence and thoughtfulness to others, I think we made a right decision to go maidless and I hope that we can do this in the long run together.

Learning English at Eye Level Centre

Hey! Didn’t I advocate no tuition for my kids? Didn’t I say I place absolute trust in MOE teachers to teach our kids well enough to excel in PSLE? Well, indeed I did and we are still going the NO-TUITION way towards PSLE, just in case you wonder. But while we are doing the revision on our own, it is a good opportunity to review an Enrichment centre’s program to learn good tips and tricks so that we can use them at home, just like what I shared about the MCE workshops’ precious takeaways!

Hey! Didn’t I advocate no tuition for my kids? Didn’t I say I place absolute trust in MOE teachers to teach our kids well enough to excel in PSLE? Well, indeed I did and we are still going the NO-TUITION way towards PSLE, just in case you wonder. But while we are doing the revision on our own, it is a good opportunity to review an Enrichment Centre’s program to learn good tips and tricks so that we can use them at home, just like what I shared about the MCE workshops’ precious takeaways!

Heard of Eye Level? Let me introduce to you that Eye Level originates from Korea 41 years ago!! What a long history and still going strong must show something for sure! There are 18 centres in Singapore islandwide. It specialises mainly on Math and English. Eye Level caters to all students of different learning abilities and pace. That’s one thing I like about the flexibility of progressing according to the students’ needs. Eye Level also encourages self-directed learning and one will see that the students here are encouraged to be independent and everything is kind of systematic and has its own place.

Eye Level’s curriculum takes students from the basic motor skills needed for reading and writing, through the building blocks of Grammar, to the more complex concepts that allow the mastery of verbal and written communication.

What Makes Eye Level English Different?

– Fundamental Language Skills : consists of basic language arts and reading with vocabulary.
– Individualized Program : allows students to begin at the point where they are able to work independently with confidence.
– Interesting and Fun : helps to foster students’ interest in reading, writing effectively, and approaches it in a fun, creative way.

Eye Level English guides students in the mastery of English language proficiency through in thematic approaches, repetitive practices, and strategies that combine listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Here are the topics the English program covers:

Environment

Eye Level Centre at Square 2 is located at Level 4. It has 2 rooms, one to conduct Math lesson and the other for English. There is a waiting area outside with benches for parents to lounge around waiting for their kids. Not only that, it has a low shelf with toys and books to entertain little ones too. I think that’s very considerate.

Diagnostic Assessment

Prior to the first lesson, Missy 12 and Master 10 had to take a diagnostic assessment test on a booklet. This is to gauge their level of competency to determine which level they should start with.

Each Eye Level lesson has a duration of maximum 45 minutes. I am totally pleased with this duration as I have learnt from my #30minrevision that kids’ attention span is really just that short. Eye Level recognises that and thus 45 minutes is sufficient to grasp the kids’ full attention and efficiency in learning.

Self-directed Learning

On our first lesson, we signed in attendance via the Tablet at the reception. We were greeted by the friendly Teacher JDrea whom my kids took an immediate liking already when we first met for diagnostic test. She spoke clearly and softly and has a warm smile. I liked her instantly too! I always believe if the kids like the teacher, they will tend to excel in the subject. Considering this is the first time the kids attended an academic enrichment class, I was glad that they had a good experience and thus, would continue for the next 7 sponsored classes. My worries about their reluctance to go for their first academic enrichment class were unfounded!

The kids were brought into 1 of the 2 rooms in the Eye Level Centre at Square 2.

All students have to take off their shoes upon entry and the next thing they do is to find their marked workbooks from previous lesson from the shelf with their names. Then they will each go to their respective study desks which are divided by partitions for privacy. They listen to audio and do assigned exercises.

There is an English curriculum to follow through. Every lesson targets to complete 2 exercises per workbook which is to be brought home as homework. And each workbook has 4 topics and that makes it 1 workbook to be completed within 2 lessons.

Teacher’s guidance

During the 45 minutes of lesson, each of the kids is assigned another booklet to be used in class. They are to complete the selected exercises and go to Teacher JDrea to go through their mistakes. This is a 1-1 session of 5-10 minutes whereby the student will have full attention of the teacher to guide him/her through the topic to ensure the student understands the mistakes made. This is akin to what I have done during our weeknights’ 1-1 #30minrevision where I assign Missy 12 to complete some exercises and go through her mistakes right after that. But the difference is that we have now a proper English teacher to help her in her English as opposed to me, an amateur, self-taught English tutor!

Feedback to Parents

You know what? I love to talk to educators, instructors, trainers and facilitators! I get to learn lots of knowledge and even get refreshed and corrected on what I had learnt before! Each time I talk to Teacher Jdrea, I learnt something new in English. I never knew I have got some simple Grammar rules wrong! Sometimes, I feel a tinge of regret that I had not read enough books and spent more time on language. But, it is never too late to learn now, alongside my Missy 12!

When the lesson ended, Teacher JDrea would give me a summary of what the kids had learnt for the day. She bothered to explain in details on each topic of English Grammar that they had covered. I find that very useful to me as I got feedback on which areas each of the kids was weak in and needed more practices. With that, I am able to focus more on their weak areas during our own home revision.

Homework

As Eye Level encourages self-directed learning and independence, naturally there will be homework to do. To be frank, the kids were not so keen to do the homework assigned. Who loves homework anyway? They found that there were many Comprehensions to do in the workbook. As much as I could feel for them, I appreciate the many Comprehension practices because it helps to train the kids to understand Comprehension passages and learn how to answer them. By reading more passages, it helps to boost their understanding and exposure to sentence structure and Grammar rules. Only by doing more of such Comprehension practices will one improve the Comprehension segment of the exam paper.

Reward

I have heard of many enrichment centres dishing out expensive rewards. I am not so sure if that won’t make the kids materialistic and consequently send the wrong message to these young ones. But Eye Level did it just perfectly. Each of the students is given a reward sticker board. They need to collect about 20+ stickers before they can fill up one board and get to choose a reward gift on the gift shelf. I look through the rewards and they were mainly practical stuff like stationery and small toys. The value of these rewards is not too pricey but enough to motivate the kids to work towards collecting them. I am definitely not for expensive rewards and find such high value rewards tend to desensitise the kids’ idea of what a reward should be. Even for me, I give my kids a small gift of their choice that is within the budget of $20-$30 for the hard work they put in for the whole academic year. I don’t believe in expensive rewards as a motivator.

Assessment

Before a student proceeds to the next level and a new skill set, an Eye Level instructor will give the student a level test to evaluate if they have achieved mastery of the current material. This constant monitoring of the kids’ competency with close teacher’s guidance during the 1-1 sessions, allowing learning at the kids’ own pace, plus the Feedback from Teacher to Parents and vice-versa are really the strong building blocks to effective learning. Many Enrichment Centres hold big classes which makes learning at own pace impossible. Further, 1-1 sessions are limited or none. With such comparisons, I come to appreciate Eye Level way of helping the students to learn effectively.

Well, stay tune for my next post on more information on Eye Level English Curriculum as well as our verdict of Eye Level Centre!

More information on Eye Level Centre:

Fees: $140 for 1x per week lesson; $180 for 2x per week lesson
Website: Eye Level Singapore
Facebook: click here
To enquire: call 6397 6117
To find a centre near you: click here

Disclaimer: We were invited for 8 English lessons for the purpose of this review. It is a good first time for the kids on academic enrichment class and we have many takeaways in terms of gaining knowledge and intangibles which I shall share in my next post. All in all, I am glad that they have a good experience with Eye Level!

PSLE Series – How We Learn Comprehension (The No Tuition Way)

We have been doing our #30minrevision every weeknight and only concentrating on nothing but English. We leave the Science and Math revision to the weekends when we have more time. The reason why we concentrate hard on English shows how I value the importance of the English subject. And it is also easier for us to concentrate on language rather than the heavy kind of revision in calculation or theories on the limited attention span on weeknights.

I wanted to catch more eyeballs with a header that says “Ace your way in Comprehension” but I thought since our self-learnt method is not tried and tested, I had better be humble to share this post on how we learn Comprehension, the no tuition way.

As most of you may have known that I learnt a lot of good tips from the PSLE Parent Workshop for English by Marshall Cavendish Education. I shared my learning with Missy 12 over 4 blocks of #30minrevision in 4 weeknights.

1st weeknight of #30minrevision – Reading Comprehension and explaining to her how to draw arrows on the Comprehension passage and infer.

2nd weeknight – Read Comprehension Questions and explain to her how to do highlighting on the questions. Then read the Comprehension passage a 2nd time to understand more in depth and relate to Questions. Start doing the Questions until 30 min is up.

3rd weeknight – Continuing doing the Comprehension Questions. Then check answers and explain mistakes. Try a 2nd Comprehension passage all over again starting from reading the comprehension passage once.

4th weeknight – Do the same steps as above to complete 2nd Comprehension passage and complete questions. This time round, Missy 12 could do it faster because she has grasped the Comprehension skills and concept.

6 Steps in Learning the Comprehension Skills

Step 1: Reading the Passage

This is the most important step to score in Comprehension! If one does not read properly and understand what the passage in depth, he/she will waste much time in answering the questions because he/she will have to refer back and forth and scan through to re-read several times. I told Missy 12 to spend more time to read the passage carefully and understand the passage as much as she can, once she is able to understand the passage, she will save lots of time when doing the Comprehension questions. It will be faster than skimping through the passage and dive right into the questions, only to have most of them answered wrongly.

Step 2: Annotate as you Read

I learnt this step from the PSLE Parent Workshop. There are many words in a passage that refer to one another. Sometimes, the reference of the words are not obvious and one has to infer (deduce or conclude) from the story to understand what the words are referring to. For example in the picture below, the word “a ten-year-old boy” is referring to “Wesley Binks“. And Missy 12 will draw an arrow to join these 2 inferences together. The word “It” highlighted in yellow is referring to the “firework”, hence, Missy 12 will similarly draw an arrow to connect both together for her understanding. While it may seem obvious, it helps readers to not get lost in the passage.

You may ask if this is a time-waster in examinations. Well, I told Missy 12 that as long as she annotates during her regular Comprehension practices, she will annotate faster as she gets the hang of it and she can even annotate less during the examinations. What is important here is to first UNDERSTAND the passage.

Look at the picture below, I teach my girl to write down meaning of phrases. For example, “feathers were still a little ruffled” means “angry“. So, what if she does not know the meaning of the word or phrase? I realised that it is good to make a guess and look one sentence above and one sentence below or within the same sentence for clues. I have gone through with her a few times and I find this trick works most of the time.

Step 3: Read the Questions and Highlight

Make a habit to highlight tenses and keywords in the questions. This will remind the child to answer in the right tense. Actually, most of the answers are usually in past tense for most Comprehension passages, unless the passage is a non-fiction passage. Then, you will spot most present tense usage in the passage anyway.

Step 4: Read the Passage a SECOND Time

Reading the passage a second time is very important. Usually, we will understand the passage better or catch the details that we had left out in the first read. This time round, when reading, do ask questions to yourself and answer them. In the Workshop, we learnt that this is a good habit to get used to. When one ask questions in the head and answer these questions, he/she will tend to get closer to the answers to the questions that examiners set, because examiners set the questions with the same kind of thought process in mind! In fact, when we get used to answering our own questions, we are training our mind to be analytical too!

Step 5: Answer the Questions

This is the time to answer the questions and I remind my girl: DON’T BE LAZY TO FLIP BACK AND REFER TO THE PASSAGE AGAIN AND AGAIN! I find that sometimes she tends to answer questions with her memory instead of flipping back the paper to refer to the passage. If the answer is in the passage, do not let go of a chance to get the answer right! Do not depend on just memory alone!!!

Step 6: Check G.P.S.

What is G.P.S.? Not the navigation of course! Get your child in the habit of checking Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling! There is bound to be mistakes! Never give up on checking carefully. I told my girl to point to each word when she reads her answer just to be sure she is using the right tense and right spelling.

The above 6 steps are how I want my girl to go through each Comprehension passage from now on. In fact, I told her if she gets the habit of doing these steps, it will help her go a long way into Secondary School when Comprehension passages are much tougher.

If you like this post and find it useful, do share with your friends who are struggling in Comprehension or preparing for PSLE like us. I want to selflessly teach everyone what I know and how I teach my children in academics. I do have a small ambition: To inspire more parents to go the NO-TUITION route like us! Let’s save money and save time for our children to play and unwind more! I think there is more to life than academic and tuition.

You may follow us in the NO TUITION PSLE SERIES by clicking on the link or follow us on instagram to see how we learn in our daily #30minrevision. And if you have a P5 kid, do hop over to DinoMama, a fellow mummy blogger who has started to document some good study tips from her daily revision with her son too.

Hope this post is useful to everyone out there who has a kid in school! Stay tune for the next post!